We met the Ghosts of ILF here in a dream…..Now to add some more information….
The Ghosts of Ilf
and
Dot-nose and E but D
The two slightly past it women lay slumped in the positions they had fallen asleep in. Never a comfortable pose at the best of times and many was the morning that they awoke and took a while to ease their bodies into an aching yet sharp-pain free position. They usually blamed the long walk to the pub for their stiff and tired limbs and rarely paused to consider whether the alcohol induced stupor of the night before had anything to do with it.
But there was also another reason for their pain, a reason that they knew nothing of, a reason that was dark and black and completely unknown to them, a reason that would explain many of the inexplicable happenings in their lives. Though if either one was to ever be put under intense hypnotherapy they could tell a different tale of those hours of bleary sleep…. A tale that they knew nothing of, a tale that was dark and black and completely unknown to them, a tale that would explain many of the inexplicable happenings in their lives.
The wind stirred the trees and rustled the bushes, it shook the washing line and heralded whirls and wisps that grew ever stronger the nearer their destination. The whirls and wisps took form, black Tendrils reaching forward, swirling and twirling in a dance unseen. They moved upward and then sucked back inside themselves. And thus began the haunting. Through the dismal streets they moved leaving a cold shiver and a brittle snap in their wake. They were the reason for the sins of the fathers bearing down on generation after generation, never allowing peace or change, good luck or happiness, health or wealth to befall those on whom they bestowed their enforced habitation. They permitted brief respites where their victim falsely believed they could sense change was in the air and a sniff of freedom was coming their way, perhaps the grey they felt had engulfed them all their life had a touch of colour, just at the edges, which may become the brightness they wished would percolate through their lives and give meaning to their existence.
The Ghosts of Ilf were strong, cunning and well aware of the potential of their victims. With some it was easy to snuff out dreams from an early age, to let them believe they had no choice in life, could make no decisions as to their future and enfold them in skin upon skin of lies until they could no longer see anything but the path of Ilf. With others who showed a resourceful and upbeat side they carefully led them to believe they could succeed and then, whilst they were in this false sense of security, forced calamities upon them, one after another, until the Pick Yourself Up, Brush Yourself Down and Start all Over Again motto rang hollow and fetid.
Dot-nose was of the first category-never realising her own potential and becoming bound by layer upon layer of what she had named her Onion Skin. This in itself was an annoyance to the Ghosts. They never liked being identified and certainly didn’t like being named. This was what made the haunting of Dot-nose so frustrating as when The Ghosts of Ilf believed she could rise no more, something would stir and a grain of truth would become encrusted in her head, a brief song would flick around her lips making melody with her beloved piano’s harmony.
Fear was the key with Dot-nose. Fear of others ranked top. And The Ghosts of Ilf knew this. As a youngster she would lie sleeping and The Ghosts of Ilf would silently encircle her home. They would dance outside her window gently scratching at the glass, careful to never wake her. They did their best work on the unconscious mind. Slowly and silently they would enter the room and fill it with the lines and shapes of their hideousness, and when they knew it was time they would curl around her small and perfectly formed ears and whisper unimaginable words of fear, failure and defeat. They would dance on the covers and wrap themselves around her stomach, constricting her natural breathing and causing unknown and not understood anxiety to rise and become part of her waking life. Of course, The Ghosts of Ilf knew her family well and it was easy to enlarge her fear and anxiety through the course of family life. Innocent words became a fierce babble of condemnation that ran through Dot-nose like a fault through the earth which from time to time caused earthquakes and reeked havoc all around. And thus was the effect on Dot-nose.
Some particularly unpleasant Tendrils of The Ghosts of Ilf loved toying with her dream life, playing scenarios quietly onto her ear drums, drawing images on her eyelids and dropping the bitter taste of pain on her tongue. Some mornings the images on Dot-nose’s eyelids made her eyes ache and nothing seemed right. Sometimes she wanted to spit out that it was not fair and she thought she could hear echoes of shrill and scary voices which disturbed her peace of mind. Some mornings, when she was an adult, she gave up trying to work it all out and smoked and did mathematical puzzles.
As the years passed Dot-nose grew accustomed to the sharp piercing pain in her abdomen as she awoke in the morning and put it down to a tight diaphragm after those years of hearing her family sing about her belly…’Can’t keep it in, can’t keep it in, gotta let it out, gotta let it out’. It had become her main aim to hold her stomach in at all times so that the familiar chorus would abate and she could perhaps feel a little good about herself. Little did she know where the pain actually came from….The Ghosts of Ilf and their night time prowlings.
With E but D the hauntings took on a different feel all together. She had very early taken on the cloak of Victim and thus decided nothing that happened to her was her own fault and as a product of this, she did very little to rectify any wrong or correct any way in which she thought. The Ghosts of Ilf did not like this total lack of acknowledgement for any culpability as they much preferred for their hauntees to be filled with self recrimination and guilt. They found another way in. E but D mostly slept the sleep of the totally innocent, as has been already mentioned, nothing was her fault after all. Therefore there was no way The Ghosts of Ilf could dance, suggest or whisper in the dead of night. They had to find another way in.
E but D had always liked a drink, the more and the stronger, the better, and she knew that with every new drink that she imbibed came a fresh and more captivating sparkling of her personality. The Ghosts of Ilf worked around her, moving through her acquaintances and friends whom they had control of. It really didn’t take long for their plans to take effect and for the crushing of E but D’s spirit to commence, bringing with it the pulling apart, piece by piece of her whole being, leaving her with a large crate of always forthcoming fiery gloom attached to her back and spilling over into her life, burning her on the way.
But as with Dot-nose, E but D caused irritation to The Ghosts of Ilf. Whilst E but D never did much, when she had a creative moment she could produce the most beautiful and splendid art work which could take one’s breath away. However, E but D often left her art work in pubs and on buses.
That’s All!
See Ya xx